The Funniest 'SNL' Sketches of 2017

The Trump era has already given the world its share of hard-to-believe events. Among them: Saturday Night Live's highest viewership in more than two decades. While the current White House has certainly provided the necessary fodder to help NBC's comedy powerhouse earn can't-miss-TV status, even the nonpolitical sketches have felt sharper. In celebration of SNL's return to relevance, we've ranked our favorite moments -- the silliest, the most surprising, and the most potent -- from 2017. Please re-enjoy:

Recommended Video

Entertainment

Netflix's New Sci-Fi Show Is Its Biggest Production to Date

40. "Movie Interview"

Episode date: January 14 "Now more than ever, artists must speak truth to power." That's exactly what the team behind Hot Robot 3: Journey to Boob Mountain set out to do, according to this shot at self-important press junkets.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

39. "Welcome Video"

Episode date: February 4 When people wondered what Trump's travel ban would mean for US Customs, Beck Bennett's ruthlessly intense video editor provided the answers. Jarring and insane answers, but answers nonetheless.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

38. "The Chosen One"

Episode date: October 7 For fans of Pete Davidson's Chad, this was like celebrating Christmas early. (And then, of course, there was Chadmas -- just as good, and it gave us the "Doink Doink.") Thanks be to Chad.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

37. "Angel"

Episode date: November 4 New castmember Heidi Gardner was having somewhat of a quiet season until she hit the Weekend Update desk as Angel, "Every Boxer's Girlfriend From Every Movie About Boxing Ever." Her self-explanatory character stole that week's show, earning big laughs by endlessly threatening to take her kids to her sister's house -- and encouraging Colin Jost to take note in increasingly not-so-subtle ways. Hopefully we'll see Angel again soon.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

36. "Jeff Sessions Gump"

Episode date: March 4 Whether impersonating politicians or celebs, MVP Kate McKinnon has been damn near perfect this year. Her inspired take on Jeff Sessions -- replete with Gump-isms in this cold open -- merits special appreciation.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

35. "WikiLeaks Cold Open"

Episode date: November 18 Alex Moffat and Mikey Day are so good at making Eric and Donald Trump Jr. look so dumb. Their Update appearances are great, but this was the best.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

34. "New Wife"

Episode date: November 4 The end of this is the kind of gold that happens when good writing meets a good host getting pimped into delightfully unfamiliar territory.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

33. "Gretchen"

Episode date: December 9 God bless Michael Che. The Weekend Update co-host (and newly appointed co-head writer!) tackled his critics by going "undercover" as Gretchen, a super-liberal white woman. It was an eye-opening experience for everyone.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

32. "Visit With Santa"

Episode date: December 9 This year was a generally batshit-crazy year. Come Christmastime, it was hard not to wonder about the legitimacy of Saint Nick's Naughty List. Take President Trump, for example: With at least 19 women accusing him of sexual misconduct, was he getting... presents or coal? Not sure, but those are the kinds of uncomfortable questions this mall Santa (Kenan Thompson) got, and it was great.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

31. "Office Phone Call"

Episode date: December 16 You know that horrible after-lunch feeling when you're stuck in an important meeting, but then your nana calls, and it's an emergency and you just gotta go meet her in the fifth-floor bathroom to handle your "crisis"? Yeah, well Doug (played perfectly by an extremely antsy Kevin Hart) had that feeling the other day and to our delight, it kinda ruined him.

28. "Themyscira"

Episode date: October 7 With Gal Gadot as its host, SNL couldn't resist spoofing Wonder Woman. Two lesbian voyagers (Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon) docked at Themyscira, hoping to address the gay subtext of the movie's all-women island. Instead, the Amazon warriors unintentionally teased their visitors with compliments, shows of wrestling, and one big kiss. "It's like we're in a porn," Bryant quipped, "but the plumber is just genuinely there to fix the pipes."

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

27. "Claire from HR"

Episode date: November 11 A bad close to the year, which has seen a near endless string of sexual abuse revelations coming out of Hollywood and D.C., prompted Cecily Strong's Claire from HR to issue Colin Jost and SNL viewers a stern reminder in the form of a sexual harassment quiz. There were no wrong answers -- only super wrong answers. Strong's gags made the character a winning watch. So much so, Jost could barely keep it together.

related

25. "Celebrity Family Feud: Time Travel Edition"

Episode date: April 15 Since SNL's "Celebrity Family Feuds" are typically clown cars of cast impressions, the sketches can sometimes drag. But Jimmy Fallon's mastery of John Travolta here made for an exciting, and truly impressive, instance of seeing double. (Note: NBC no longer provides video of this sketch online.)

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

24. "Come Back, Barack"

Episode date: November 18 Was De-Von-Tré's R&B-Thanksgiving homage to Barack Obama as good as last year's "Jingle Barack"? No. But was it still pretty great? YEP.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

23. "Gift Wrap"

Episode date: December 9 Leslie Jones got to wrestle with the "live" aspect of Saturday Night Live when host James Franco shot a mouthful of stage blood, mama bird-style, right into her mouth. "You fucking traumatized me," she told Franco afterward. "Blood went in my mouth and then I threw up in my mouth and I had to swallow it so I wouldn't throw up on national fucking live TV." This was already a good sketch, but knowing that, while seeing her hilariously convincing grunts and rough line deliveries, took it to the next level.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

22. "Career Retrospective"

Episode date: November 4 When Larry David's ad man sat down for this lifetime achievement award ceremony, he probably knew he was going to have to sit through a brief retrospective. What he probably didn't realize was how poorly the problematic refrains of his earliest campaigns were going to play.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

21. "Totino's with Kristen Stewart"

Episode date: February 4 The best part about this year's Super Bowl? No, it wasn't the comeback that turned every Boston fan into The Worst. It wasn't Gisele Bündchen's phone. It was this Totino's masterpiece, complete with life-changing product placement and side-splitting twists.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

20. "Henrietta & The Fugitive"

Episode date: September 30 Ryan Gosling played a real bad boy in this send-up of old-timey cinematic romance. He was on the run from the cops, hiding a gun and trying to win over the true love of his life: a lonely, lonely hen (Aidy Bryant). It was all strange, mystifying, and extremely dumb in the best of ways -- you'll see that even the actors agree.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

19. "Another Close Encounter"

Episode date: September 30 If Ryan Gosling's hosting SNL, you can bank on seeing Ms. Rafferty. The movie star reunited with Kate McKinnon's oft-naked cosmic curiosity this fall for an alien abduction sequel that centered on her butt -- the aliens were "like shoppers storming a Wal-Mart on Black Friday." As with the story of the first close encounter, everyone onstage had a hard time keeping their shit together.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

18. "Where in the World Is Kellyanne Conway?"

Episode date: May 6 Donald Trump's confidante was such a staple of morning news programs, swooping in for every instance of damage control, that SNL had to do a sketch about her needing a day off. And then, much like criminal mastermind Carmen Sandiego, she appeared to vanish. What happened? Unfortunately, the gumshoes in this pitch-perfect spoof didn't know and really, really, really didn't care.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

17. "Family Feud: Harvey Family Thanksgiving"

Episode date: November 18 When Steve Harvey's family went up against the Didricksons -- Carol (Aidy Bryant), Peter (Beck Bennett), Justin (Mikey Day), and Cecil (Chance the Rapper) -- they weren't expecting to play family reunion. Since the Feud sketches are usually excuses for random celebrity impressions (see above), it was refreshing to get an installment that felt more focused. The Cecil revelation had Kenan Thompson and Chance making lovably dumb magic.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

16. "Couples Game Night"

Episode date: May 6 What's supposed to be a simple guess-this-theme game quickly evolves into an impressive, surprisingly destructive homage to Stephen Sondheim and Kelsey Grammer. Frasier's "theme song" never sounded better.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

15. "Complicit"

Episode date: March 11SNL's potent perfume commercial has proven to be one of the better auxiliary Trump thrashings of 2017, holding the president's favorite daughter accountable for her proximity to the White House madness by calling her "a feminist, an advocate, a champion for women, but, like, how?" Scarlett Johansson's smile was the icing on the cake.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

14. "La La Land Interrogation"

Episode date: January 21 Aziz Ansari's episode quickly became a standout after airing, thanks in large part to the comedian's funny, sincere, and critical opening monologue. The rest of the show came packed with no dearth of highlights, including this ever-relatable La La Land jab, which held the host hostage for criticizing Damien Chazelle's awards-season powerhouse.

NBC

13. "Beck and Kyle"

Episode date: November 11 Kyle's behind-the-scenes "relationship" with Leslie Jones, which continues to be one of this cast's best (and most elaborate) recurring jokes, finally caused some major drama this season. Poor Jost.

11. "Kellyanne Conway"

Episode date: January 21 "And when the world goes up in flames, at least for now they knew my name." This near shot-for-shot play on Chicago's "Roxie," with McKinnon prancing around as Trump's truth-massaging consigliere, mercilessly satirized its target in show-stopping fashion.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

10. "American Girl Store"

Episode date: December 2 We know SNL can lampoon just about any serious subject -- the White House, sexual misconduct, the White House AND sexual misconduct -- but let's not forget the show's writers can just as handily whip up original tragicomedy of their own. That's what happened with this disaster at the Canyon Galleria Shopping Center, where an underground gas main exploded and almost killed the patrons of an American Girl Store. Fortunately, as they say, not all heroes wear capes. Or fly or have cool gadgets. Some, like this one, played brilliantly by Mikey Day, just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Definitely just buying a gift.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

9. "Bedroom"

Episode date: January 21 Especially crafty writing paved the way for Melissa Villaseñor's buzzkilling dirty talk and unappealing impressions in what felt like the lost Master of None episode we didn't deserve. Also, good reminder that Shanghai Knights exists.

7. "Kellywise"

Episode date: October 14 This parody swapped out the Georgie and Pennywise from Andrés Muschietti's recent IT remake for Anderson Cooper (Alex Moffat) and Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon) to poke fun at Conway's desperation and TV news' reliance on the Trump administration. McKinnon killed. "OK, so Puerto Rico actually was worse before Hurricane Maria, and the hurricane actually did blow some buildings back together," Kellywise said from the sewers, adding, "OK, so Secretary Tillerson did not call the president a 'moron' -- they were sharing a sundae, and the president asked if he wanted more sprinkles, and the secretary said, 'More on,'" before baring rows of terrifying teeth. Poor Coopy. Poor TV news.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

6. "Welcome to Hell"

Episode date: December 2 Following October's dam-breaking Harvey Weinstein news, several powerful men in virtually every industry were outed as habitual predators. So many that it caused a weird sense of public shock: "Dang, is this the world now?" With lollipops, popsicles, and a very poppy music video, SNL lampooned the painfully naïve reaction and put things into perspective. For women everywhere -- and for a long time -- that's been the damn world.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

5. "Papyrus"

Episode date: September 30 Remember the Avatar logo? It was kind of "tribal yet futuristic." Yeah, or basically the Papyrus font -- the same thing used for hookah bars, Shakira merch, and off-brand teas. It is, as Ryan Gosling's hilarious descent into madness portrays, an unshakable nightmare.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

4. "Basketball Scene"

Episode date: April 15 The background players in this basketball movie were great at saying "'sup," popping the rock, and doing bellyflops. The one thing they weren't great at? Actually playing basketball. Amazingly incompetent.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

3. "Pizza Town"

Episode date: January 21 This year's "Space Pants" was the beautifully simple, weird, and cheesy escape we needed immediately following Trump's inauguration. Bobby Moynihan's animatronic drumming, in particular, was worthy of a trophy. Or a pizza.

NBC

2. "Before the Show"

Episode date: April 15 Potential traumatic-flashback alert for theater nerds -- or people familiar with this Red Room clip. The acting, enthusiasm, and awkwardness in SNL's middle-school rendition of Legally Blonde: The Musical were almost too spot-on, the kind of cringe that hurt so, so good. (Note: NBC no longer provides video of this sketch online.)

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

1. "Sean Spicer Press Conference"

Episode date: February 4 The gum. The dollies. The podium. Melissa McCarthy's recurring role as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was a godsend this year. The very best was her first militant appearance, notable for turning terrible news items into laughs and genuinely irking the president. Like Atamanuik's Trump, McCarthy's Spicey was five-star comedic activism, a surprise that will be hard to forget.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

The first name in spy fiction, naturally, is a code name. There is no John le Carré, but there is a David Cornwell.

The author of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Constant Gardener, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is still with us at age 87 (and still writing), but two of his sons, Simon and Stephen, have taken over the family business in a way, developing le Carré projects for film and television.

Their biggest hit thus far has been the Tom Hiddleston-led AMC miniseries The Night Manager, but don't sleep on the somewhat overlooked Philip Seymour Hoffman movie A Most Wanted Man. The Cornwell's new project, AMC's The Little Drummer Girl, might fill a post-Americans vacuum for double-agent sagas. A faithful adaptation to the thick text, given cinematic flair by South Korean director Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, Stoker, The Handmaiden). This is television for smart people who are ready to put in a little work and not be spoon-fed, trusting that by the end of six hours all will make sense.

The Most Festive Things to Do in Boston for the Holidays

The countdown has begun. Wait, no, the countdown is over, because the holiday season is totally upon us. So skip the Scroogism and spend the next six weeks embracing the city in all its cheesy, unironic, brightly lit holiday glory. Sure, that’s a lot of shopping, eating, drinking, caroling, and oohing and ahhing at decorations, but we know you have it in you. Here is everything you must do in Boston during the holiday season.

Everyone does Thanksgiving celebrations in their own fashion. It can make the traditions of others seems impossibly strange, often in wonderful ways. The Tonight Show's recurring "Hashtags" segment is well-suited to revealing these kinds of weird rites performed by people around the country, and that's what it did on Friday's show.

In "Hashtags," the show asks people to share surprising stories on Twitter using a preselected hashtag such as #WeirdestHalloweenEver or #WhyImaGrinch. This time it was #TurkeyDayTradition, and viewers delivered incredibly unexpected stories about what their family does on T-Day.

It seems almost unavoidable that some stories involved grandparents who stopped caring what anyone thinks and younger generations turning the stories of reminiscing aunts and uncles into a drinking game.

What was wholly unexpected was a new game everyone should play. (At least, it sounds better than Monopoly for Millennials.) The game is called Ham Slap, and surely the patent is pending. There don't appear to be any rules other than you surprise family members and slap them with a slice of ham while yelling, "You just got HAM SLAPPED!"

It's fun for at least half the family. As Fallon showed by incorporating it into basically every story, it combines well with other family traditions.